Baker Lake, Nunavut

The community of Baker Lake sits at the mouth of the Thelon River on the shore of Baker Lake, and is Canada's only inland Inuit community.

Traditionally a gathering place for many different groups of Inuit, the community is now home to many Inuit artists and carvers. Carvers work on medium suitable to large-scale pieces in the local dark grey to black stone that, although hard, generally accepts detail and polish. Baker Lake carvers explore family, hunting, animal, spiritual and mythic themes.

The art of printmaking in the North was pioneered in Baker Lake in the late 1950s. Baker Lake print imagery is generally bold and colourful with an emphasis on shamanistic and supernatural subject matter which became very popular with collectors. A fire closed the original print shop but it has now been rebuilt and new collections of Baker Lake prints started again in the late 1990s.